White Nights (14 page)

Taylor didn’t go into the hut. From what Perez had said there’d been enough contamination of the scene already. Now they could let the CSI get on with her work. He’d just wanted to get a feel of the place before they started. And he was glad he’d come. He had this sense that everyone in Biddista was staring at him. He could feel the eyes. He didn’t look at the houses to check if there were people staring from the windows; he didn’t have to. He wouldn’t have understood what that was like just from chatting to Perez. This was a place where it was impossible to keep secrets. He couldn’t believe that nobody knew who had killed the man. Perhaps they all knew. Perhaps it was all one huge conspiracy.

He turned back to Perez. ‘Why don’t we leave them to it? Let’s get into Lerwick, just the two of us, and you can fill me in on the details.’ He phrased it as a suggestion, but he knew Perez would have no choice but to agree.

In the car he was aware of the sea to the right of him, but all his concentration was on Perez. ‘You say you were one of the last people to see the victim alive. What was he doing?’

There was one of those pauses. Perez pulled into a passing place to let a woman in a clapped-out van squeeze by.

‘He was weeping.’

Taylor wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting. Not that.

‘What do you mean, weeping? What had upset him?’

Another beat of silence. ‘He didn’t know. Or so he claimed.’ And then Perez told his story. About the stranger who caused a scene at some arty-farty do by bursting into tears and then claiming not to know who he was or how he’d got there. Taylor knew better than to interrupt. He was full of questions, but he had to let Perez tell it in his own way.

‘You see why I believed it could be suicide,’ Perez said. ‘Yet I was never quite convinced.’

‘Were you convinced that the guy had really lost his memory?’

Perez considered. Taylor waited. He wanted to shout,
It’s a simple question, man. How long does it take to come up with an answer?
He could feel the tension of waiting constricting his breathing.

‘No,’ Perez said at last. ‘I never really was.’ And that was good enough for Taylor. Perez might irritate the shit out of him, but he was the best judge of character Taylor knew. He watched men like David Attenborough watched animals.

‘Why pretend?’

This time the answer came more quickly. ‘I don’t know. I’ve been thinking about it since I found the body. Maybe he wanted to spoil the opening of the exhibition. But why would a stranger from England
want to do that? What could he have against Bella Sinclair or Fran Hunter?’

Taylor recognized the name. ‘Isn’t that the same woman who found Catherine Ross?’

‘Aye.’ There was a small flutter of the eyelids. ‘That’s why I was there. She’s become a sort of friend.’

Anyone else and Taylor would have taken the piss.
What sort of friend would that be, then? The sort you sleep with?
But he didn’t want to offend Perez. No way could he work here without the man on his side.

Perez changed the subject. ‘It’s possible that the victim tried to stop the opening from happening at all. Someone went round Lerwick giving out flyers which said it had been cancelled. He was wearing a mask like a clown.’

‘But neither of the artists recognized him?’

A silence. ‘So they say.’ Another pause. ‘The flyer said the opening had been cancelled because of a death in the family. Almost as if he’d been predicting his own murder.’

Kenny Thomson arrived at the undertakers’ before they were ready to let him see the body. There were two men to greet him: Jimmy Perez, who always reminded him of that summer he’d spent on Fair Isle, and the big Englishman he’d seen get out of the car at the jetty.

They sat in a dark little waiting room. In one corner there was a bowl of silk flowers. There was a heavy, kind of floral smell in the air. It couldn’t come from the silk, of course, and he wondered what was making it.

He was thinking about that when Perez introduced the English detective, so he still wasn’t sure of his name and what his rank was.

‘What’s all this about then, Kenny?’ Perez said. He had a quiet, hesitant way of talking, thoughtful, as if he was weighing every word before he spoke.

‘It’s probably nothing,’ Kenny said. ‘But I thought, Better to check. Better than lying awake at night wondering.’

‘Tell us a bit about Lawrence,’ Perez said. ‘Just while we’re waiting.’

And Kenny found himself talking about Lawrence, the older brother who was bigger and stronger than
him, who left Kenny in his shadow. ‘He was the sort of man who’d walk into a room and everyone would start smiling,’ he said. ‘When he went I missed him. Everyone in Biddista missed him.’

‘Why did he go? Was it for work?’

Then Kenny saw that they didn’t want to know that Lawrence lit up the room when he walked in. What they wanted was facts and dates. But he had more than that to tell them.

‘He had work here,’ he said. ‘Plenty of work. He wasn’t so interested in the croft. He didn’t really have the patience for it. He was more one for quick results. He was a fine builder. He started off working for Jerry Stout and learned the trade from him, then when Jerry died he took over the business. He and Jerry put a new roof on the Manse when Bella moved in. Then Lawrence converted the Herring House. Eve Eunson drew up the plans, but he did all the work on it. More of a labour of love. That’s what he called it. He was down there more than twelve hours a day, getting it ready for the opening. I did some labouring for him when I could. Bella didn’t pay him what he was due. Once the gallery was finished he had offers of work from all over Scotland. He didn’t need to live away. He could have stayed in Shetland and just travelled for the work.’

‘Why did he go?’

Kenny wasn’t sure how much to say. ‘I don’t know. I wasn’t there when it happened. He was besotted with Bella. Whatever she asked he did. He always had plans to marry her. That’s what I think. It was always a dream at the back of his head. No one else would live up to her. He saw other women from time to time, but
you could tell he wasn’t serious about them. Bella kept him hanging on a string all the time the Herring House was being built, then once it was finished, I think she made it clear he had no chance with her. She was too selfish to settle down. She’d got what she wanted from him.’ Kenny knew he sounded bitter but he didn’t care. Whenever he thought about it, he was angry.

‘When was this, Kenny?’

‘It was that summer I was in Fair Isle working on the harbour. They’d asked Lawrence to do it, but he was tied up with the last finish on the Herring House and he put the work my way. He knew I was looking to expand the croft and the money would be useful. I never had the chance to say goodbye to him.’

‘He didn’t ask your advice about leaving?’

Kenny smiled to himself. When had Lawrence ever asked anyone’s advice? ‘That wasn’t his style,’ he said. ‘He was kind of impulsive. It wasn’t the first time he’d gone off without telling anyone. When he was nineteen he disappeared; he just left a note for my parents. That time it was backpacking round Australia.’

‘What did he intend to do this time?’

‘I think maybe the Merchant Navy. He was always talking about that. The way to travel and get paid for it. He was always easy in a boat. You know the kids in Biddista, they’re out in a dinghy almost as soon as they can walk. It was natural for him.’ Kenny stopped speaking for a moment. He was thinking of one of those still summer evenings. Him and Lawrence out after mackerel. The boat at anchor, moving with the
swell. Lawrence on his feet, balanced, and laughing at some joke Kenny had made.

Perez looked at him, waiting for him to continue.

‘Besides,’ Kenny went on. ‘It was a great romantic gesture, wasn’t it, running away to sea? Lawrence would be one for the big romantic gesture.’

‘When did you last hear from him?’

‘I never have. He left a message with Bella to say he was leaving and he was never in touch with us again.’ He turned to Perez. ‘He could have phoned me at the hostel, couldn’t he? To say goodbye. We didn’t have mobiles then, but he could have tracked me down somewhere. Maybe he was frightened I’d persuade him to stay.’

‘Will you recognize him, do you think?’ Perez asked.

‘I’ve been thinking about that. I got out some photos.’ There’d been one of him, Lawrence, Edith and Bella standing on the jetty grinning into the camera. He couldn’t remember who’d taken it. Aggie maybe. Though surely she’d have been married by then. She wouldn’t still be living at home. But she’d come back to Biddista whenever she could. She’d never been able to stay away.

‘All the same, it’s been a long time. And people look different when they’re dead.’

‘He had a birthmark on his right shoulder,’ Kenny said. ‘However he’s changed, I’ll know him by that.’

‘We could check that for you. If you don’t want to look at the body again.’

But Kenny shook his head. If this did happen to be Lawrence, he wanted to identify him for himself. This was his brother.

Then, it seemed, it was time to look at the body. Kenny couldn’t tell why suddenly they decided the time was right. Nobody came in to tell them. He thought the delay had probably just been an excuse to get him talking.

The body was lying on a steel table. There was no one else in the room. Perez stood by the table and prepared to lift back a sheet so Kenny could see the face. The English policeman still hadn’t said anything, except for a few words of greeting when Perez had introduced him, but he’d followed them in and now stood at Kenny’s shoulder. Kenny wished he’d move back a bit to give him some space. Perez turned and Kenny nodded to show he was ready.

As soon as he saw the face he knew it wasn’t Lawrence. There was no likeness. He wondered how he could ever have doubted his first impression. He should never have listened to Aggie Williamson. He should never have got caught up in her panic. Lawrence had a full, deep forehead and a mouth which was wide, even when he wasn’t laughing. This man had delicate features, thin lips. It could have been a woman’s face, if it hadn’t been for the slight stubble on the chin, the hairy eyebrows. Kenny had a terrible desire to giggle. He pictured the corpse suddenly as one of those drag queens who appeared sometimes on the television, with a false bosom and a blond wig. He supposed it was the release of tension, the relief.